Throughout the year, 1,812 fewer people were victims of crime in Baltimore - including 416 fewer victims of violent crime. The city also experienced continued declines in several serious categories including juvenile homicides domestic violence, property crime, and robbery. Overall violent crime declined 5% over last year-a more than 45% decrease since 2000 and a 7% decrease since 2009. Non-fatal shootings have declined 2% to the lowest point since the City began tracking them in 2000.

And while total gun crime--including shootings, armed-robberies and carjackings-has declined more than 6% when compared to 2011’s historic lows, the lethality of 2012’s gun violence pushed the city’s homicide total to 217 as of December 31st.

Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts underscored his commitment to reducing violence further by continuing to target gun violence in Baltimore. In recent days, the Commissioner has begun to implement strategic changes to help ensure the Department has a strong foundation in place to start 2013 driving crime lower.

“Yet again, the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department have worked tirelessly towards making Baltimore a safer city,” said Batts. “Improving upon the Department's ability to gather and make use of community intelligence will help to further reduce crime in Baltimore over the coming years. We are putting the people and systems in place to help improve our crime fight and that includes better management of our resources, community engagement, and a continued and targeted focus on guns and gangs.”

“Commissioner Batts and I will not be satisfied until Baltimore becomes one of the safest big cities in America,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “I am very proud of the work of BPD command staff and all the members of the department for their hard work over the last year and the progress made. Continuing to reduce all crime and violence is central to our goal of growing Baltimore by 10,000 families.”

Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Commissioner Batts provided a preliminary detail of year-end crime statistics for 2012: Final year end crime statistics for 2012 will be released by the BPD in the coming days.

2012 Year-end crime stats:(preliminary numbers as of December 30, 2012)

● Total violent crime is down 5%--representing more than 400 fewer victims of violent crime than the year before.

● Total Part 1 crime is down 5%--representing more than 1,800 fewer victims of overall crime than the year before.

● Total gun crime--including shootings, armed-robberies and carjacking -- is down 6%

● Total property crime is down 5%

● Homicides are up 20. There were 217 homicides in 2012 compared to 197 in 2011. Homicides have declined 16.8% since 2000.

● Nonfatal Shootings are down. There have been 373 non-fatal shootings this year compared to 379 in 2011-- the fewest number of nonfatal shootings recorded since the City started tracking them in 2000.

● Juvenile violence has significantly declined.There have been 10 juvenile homicides and 15 juvenile shootings this year compared to 15 homicides and 29 nonfatal shootings last year. Juvenile homicides are down more than 61% since 2008.

● So far this year, the BPD has made 1,100 gun arrests and recovered over 1,830 illegal guns.

● There were more than 200 repeat violent offenders charged federally through EXILE partnership with the United States Attorney’s Office.